


reality is a sliding door

by gilligankane



Category: Pitch Perfect (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-20
Updated: 2015-06-20
Packaged: 2018-04-05 05:45:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,929
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4168146
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gilligankane/pseuds/gilligankane
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There is a theory: every person has a moment in their life where they make a choice to go left or right. From those possibilities, two parallel lines form, running alongside each other; two concurrent realities. </p>
<p>Parallel lines never cross; they run forever next to each other without ever meeting.</p>
<p>In one world, Beca Mitchell joins the Barden Bellas.</p>
<p>In another world, she wasn’t supposed to.</p>
<p>In every world, Beca Mitchell underestimates Chloe Beale.</p>
            </blockquote>





	reality is a sliding door

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by the 1998 classic, Sliding Doors, featuring the irreplaceable Gwyneth Paltrow.
> 
> Title from a quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson
> 
> Takes place during PP1.

There is a theory: every person has a moment in their life where they make a choice to go left or right. From those possibilities, two parallel lines form, running alongside each other; two concurrent realities.

 

Behind curtain one is the choice you made and curtain two is the choice you didn’t.

 

Some moments are seemingly insignificant.

 

_(364 days a year, you order coffee from the shop at the end of your block, but today, you decide to walk a block in the other direction, on a whim. The barista, someone you have never before – someone you might have never met – smiles at you.)_

 

Others, it is understood, the weight they carry.

 

_(At the end of a long aisle, your father holding you steady as your heels sink into the grass, you look up and catch the groom’s eye. There’s a flutter in your chest, a swarm of butterflies beating their way into a frenzy. The music starts to swell around you, your father’s arm tightens, and the grooms smile fades into a frown as you back further and further from the altar.)_

 

No matter the difference, there will be a moment. There will be a single second in time where you make a decision and the entire course of your life is altered.

 

Maybe for better and maybe for worse.

 

It all depends on whether you go left or right.

 

\---

 

Beca Mitchell’s moment doesn’t feel like a _moment_.

 

She’s toweling off after her shower, trying to shake the image of that girl – Carla, Connie, _Chloe_ – out of her head. Slipping her sandals back on, she heads to her dorm room and changes before she sits at her laptop, staring at the empty screen.

 

So that was totally weird, but the acoustics in that shower stall were killer. She has ‘Titanium’ stuck in her head and she’s struck with a lightning bolt of inspiration. ‘Titanium’ mashed with ‘Baby Got Back’ consumes her all the way through her Philosophy 101 class and her Intro to Lit seminar.

 

Beca glances up at the clock and notices that it’s 3 o’clock in the afternoon. That girl, _Chloe_ , had said that auditions for her group of probably-just-as-crazy friends was starting at 3pm, sharp.

 

Beca makes a decision.

 

\---

 

In one world, Beca Mitchell decides she’s going to give the strange naked girl a chance. In that world, Beca Mitchell puts down her laptop and doesn’t breathe the entire walk to the auditorium and she overturns a cup to play some stupid song she learned that summer with Amber, the girl from the tattoo parlor.

 

In that world, Beca Mitchell becomes a Barden Bella.

 

\---

 

In another world, she doesn’t.

 

\---

 

Beca doesn’t see the naked girl until a few weeks later, when she’s skipping her Western Civ class. She’s holed up in the library, headphones on, sketching out a new composition instead of doing the paper she told her father he most definitely could proofread before she turned it in. She knows he’s only doing that to ensure she actually writes it, but whatever. She’ll play the game, do her year, and get out of here. It’s a solid game plan.

 

The tap on her shoulder scares her. Her headphones stay plugged in when she jerks back so hard that her chair starts to tip underneath her.

 

“Woah! Easy.”

 

Beca’s heart feels like it’s punching her in the stomach. “Dude, wear a bell!”

 

The girl shrugs sheepishly. “I’m sorry. I thought you heard me behind you.”

 

Beca unwinds her headphones from around her neck, taking a few steady breaths. “Well, obviously I didn’t.” She peers up at the girl, eyes narrowed. “You’re the girl from the shower.”

 

The girl from the shower brightens instantly, her smile stretching across her face. “You remembered!”

 

“Hard to forget your first naked intruder,” Beca grumbles. She looks up expectantly at the girl. “Did you need something?”

 

“Oh, yeah.” The girl sits down in the seat next to Beca. She either doesn’t see the discomfort it causes Beca, or she ignores it. Beca would put money on the second option. “You didn’t come to auditions.”

 

“Oh.” Beca scribbles out a cube on her notebook page in front of her. “I just got busy.”

 

“That’s okay. We got a good group, I think.” The girl leans forward and scans Beca’s notebook. “It’s just me and Aubrey as upperclassmen this year, so we’re trying to build a dynasty. We have some really great potential. Nothing like your voice, but the girls look really promising.”

 

Beca attempts a smile and hopes it doesn’t look as awkward as she feels it does. “Well, that’s good.”

 

“Mhmm.” The girl turns Beca’s notebook towards her. “What’re you working on?”

 

“Dude, privacy.” Beca grabs the notebook back and closes it. She scoffs. “Like you understand privacy, shower-crasher.”

 

The girl flushes just a little. “I’m sorry about that. You just have a really, _really_ great voice. And you know, it’s my-“

 

“Please don’t say ‘Lady Jam’.”

 

“-Lady Jam,” the girl finishes. Beca groans. “You can’t blame me for getting in your shower. You have to know you have an amazing voice.”

 

Beca is about to protest, she is. She has enough of a voice that she can sing her own mashups, but it’s not amazing. She’s about to say that, but the girl from the shower is sliding her chair closer and her finger, which is drawing lazy circles around the back of Beca’s notebook, drifts closer until it’s drawing unidentifiable shapes on Beca’s arm.

 

“You have a really, really great voice,” she repeats, leaning closer.

 

Beca’s tongue flicks out to wet her suddenly chapped lips. This girl is so, so close that Beca doesn’t want to breathe. “Space,” she croaks out.

 

The girl doesn’t back up, but she hovers where she is, leaning in so far that Beca can smell her body gel and her hair. It might just be sense memory, but the sudden whiff of mango and papaya smells too real, too close.

 

“We’re singing at the Sigma fall mixer this weekend. You should come watch us.” Chloe smiles and tucks a strand of Beca’s hair back behind her ear. “I’d really like to see you.”

 

Beca starts to shrug her off with some type of excuse, but the girl leans in even closer, eliminating all of Beca’s breathing space. “Just tell them you’re there to see Chloe. Okay?”

 

The girl – _Chloe_ – grins widely and stands up, sashaying away across the library. She tosses Beca another smile over her shoulder before she reaches the doors.

 

Beca doesn’t start breathing again until she’s sure Chloe is out of the library. Even then, her airflow comes in spurts and starts until it settles back down to a reasonable ebb and flow.

 

She is not going to that stupid frat house. No way.

 

\---

 

The ape at the door lets her in when she mentions she’s here to see Chloe. He looks her up and down slowly while she stands there waiting for his decision. She is out of place here in this world. Her Chucks are tearing in one toe and Amber’s Joan Jett t-shirt has a hole in the bottom. But he must deem her worthy enough because he steps out of the doorway and lets her pass.

 

She wanders through the house, dodging large elbows and meaty fists offering her red plastic cups. She hears high-pitched giggles right outside the back door and sees a long-legged brunette leaning forward at the waist, chest first, laughing at something a guy with letters is saying. She catches Beca staring at her and winks.

 

“You came!”

 

Beca is so busy not-staring at the girl with the boobs that she doesn’t see Chloe coming up on her side. She’s wrapped in a tight, suffocating hug before she can protest.

 

“This is great. I’m so excited you came.”

 

Beca shrugs her off. “I didn’t have anything better to do.”

 

Chloe grins at her. “I don’t believe that. There’s always something you can be doing. But you decided to see me, today.”

 

“It’s whatever, dude.”

 

“Nope. I feel special now.” Chloe throws an arm over Beca’s shoulders, tucking her into Chloe’s side. She walks her around the party, stopping to talk to people with names like Brett and Chad. Tom she recognizes, briefly, from the showers. At least, she thinks it was his hulking shape following Chloe out of the bathroom that day. He smirks at the two of them and winks at Chloe and Beca rolls her eyes before taking the lead and twisting out of Chloe’s hold to grab her hand and pull her towards the drink table.

 

She thinks she might need one.

 

After she meets Aubrey Posen, Beca thinks she might need more than one.

 

“You invited Joni Mitchell?”

 

Chloe blushes, her hand still gripping Beca’s. “Her name is Beca, Aubrey. Beca, you remember Aubrey?”

 

Beca looks Aubrey up and down. “Are you supposed to look like a flight attendant.”

 

“You bitch.”

 

“Aubrey!” Chloe huffs and pouts at the blonde. “Please be nice. She came to listen to us sing.”

 

“She can’t join us.” Aubrey points a finger at Beca. “You can’t join us. Auditions are over.”

 

Beca scoffs. “Like I’d want to be a part of Jet Blue’s reject air crew.”

 

Chloe squeezes her hand tightly. “Guys,” she pleads, looking at the guy with the ΣΘΒ on his chest approaching them. “Please?”

 

“Hey, Red. Posen. You ready to get this thing going? Some of your pleebs are scaring my pledges.” He points behind him to another flight attendant shaking her chest in a pledge’s face.

 

Aubrey’s eyes narrow. “Fat Amy! Keep it in your shirt!” She turns to glare at Beca and leans in threateningly. “If you mess this performance up for us, I’ll end you before you even begin.”

 

Beca sputters. “I’m not even singing!” she shouts as Aubrey walks away. She turns to Chloe. “How did I agree to this again?”

 

Chloe smiles softly. “Because I asked and I’m cute?”

 

There are pieces of the story coming into place now. Beca looks down at their hands, laced together still, and then up at Chloe’s face. The redhead is biting down on her bottom lip, her eyes wide, searching Beca’s face for any time of response.

 

“Oh,” she breathes out. “Is this… is this some type of date thing?”

 

Chloe’s eye widen in panic. “Oh my god. You didn’t know.”

 

“This is a date.” Beca knows her voice has raised a few octaves above what it’s comfortable at. “A date.”

 

Chloe groans and drops her head to Beca’s shoulder. “You didn’t know.”

 

“Dude, _no_.”

 

Chloe’s face is bright red now. “This is embarrassing.”

 

Beca sighs. “Dude, no. It’s… I’m flattered?” Chloe frowns. “I’m flattered,” she says decisively. There’s something about Chloe’s embarrassment and her eyes that make Beca want to fix this situation. It’s the reason she squeezes Chloe’s hand and tries to plaster a smirk on her face. “Should have known, really. Since you ambushed me in the shower and everything.”

 

Aubrey is shouting Chloe’s name before she can respond. She sighs and smiles apologetically before untangling their fingers and joining the rest of the girls in scarves. Beca leans back against a table and finds Tom at her side.

 

“She’s something else, huh?”

 

Beca hates small talk. She hates small talk with people she knows, like her Aunt Ida and her Aunt Ida’s sister Marie. She especially hates small talk with people she doesn’t know, like cashiers in the store or guys like Tom.

 

She plays along, though, because Chloe is staring at her from across the yard. She makes a noise at Tom that doesn’t mean no or yes and focuses her attention on the girls lining up now. Aubrey pulls out a pitch whistle and blows into it, signaling their start.

 

It’s a trainwreck. No one is moving in sync. Their harmony is non-existent. Beca feels like she’s watching a car crash in slow motion. She can’t stop it, she can’t save them, but she knows she can’t look away. Chloe’s face is twisted in a mix of embarrassment and absolute fear. Tom’s shoulders pull up towards his ears, as if he’s trying to block the sound out.

 

Mercifully, the guy who told Aubrey to get going is the one who tells them to stop. Aubrey storms off out of the backyard with the rest of the Bellas following her, their heads down. Chloe searches for Beca’s eyes and mouths ‘I’m sorry’ across the yard at her. She leaves as the talk about the Bellas starts to get tough to listen to, sneaking out the side gate when Tom goes to grab another beer. She passes a pledge passed out on the side lawn and rolls her eyes. She sees the girls on the front stoop, Aubrey’s arm around Chloe comfortingly.

 

Beca almost stops to go check on Chloe. There is there pull in her stomach that tells her she’s supposed to go over there and see what happened and why Aubrey is rubbing circles on Chloe’s back. Another part of her, the rational voice in her head, tells her that she doesn’t know Chloe and she doesn’t need to know why she looks like she’s crying. The rational voice tells her that she was duped into a date with a girl who crashed her shower and that when she gets back to her dorm, she is going to make an effort to forget all of this. It makes the most sense, really. So she puts her head down and goes the other way down the sidewalk, taking the long route back to her dorm hall.

 

She gets back to her room and write this whole thing off as a strange start to her freshman year.

 

\---

 

Chloe won’t write her off, though. Chloe follows like the stray kitten Beca fed when she was younger. It followed her around the neighborhood all the time, hoping for more food. Chloe shows up at the library again, pulling up a chair next to Beca without asking.

 

Beca looks at her and then goes back to her latest mix.

 

“I have nodes,” Chloe says after a while. Beca hears it, sort of. Chloe’s speech is a gurgle over the sound in her headphones. Beca pauses her project and drops her headphones to her neck.

 

“I have nodes,” Chloe repeats. She’s not looking at Beca. She’s looking at the Russian Lit book in her lap. “My lymph nodes are swollen and it causes vocal strain. The doctor wants me to have surgery. But that means that I can’t perform at Regionals, if I do the surgery. But if I don’t the surgery, I’ll put more strain on my vocal chords and that might cause permanent damage.”

 

Beca slowly takes the headphones off her neck and puts them on the table between them. She turns in her seat to face Chloe. “Isn’t your health more important than some singing competition?”

 

Chloe doesn’t get mad or tell her to get lost. She takes in Beca’s question and thinks about it for a moment. “Singing is my life. And I can’t let Aubrey down.”

 

Beca frowns a little. “If she was your friend, she would understand.”

 

“She does understand,” Chloe is quick to say. “But just because she understands doesn’t mean that I feel any better about it.” Chloe huffs. “I don’t know what to do.”

 

So Beca opens her web browser and types ‘nodes’ into the search bar. She reads four websites while Chloe sits next to her, reading through an analysis of Tolstoy. She scans over lists and lists of causes, effects, statistics, and personal stories. When she’s done reading, she’s got a pretty good argument for why Chloe should have surgery. So when Chloe marks her page and closes her own book to take a water break, Beca launches into her speech. Chloe sits quietly through it and listens to everything Beca has to say.

 

“I could probably schedule it for right after Regionals, right?” Chloe finally says. “In between Regionals and Semi-Finals. I think I’m a strong enough singer that I can catch up with wherever we are when I’m recovered and that way, I’m not missing any competition.”

 

Chloe seems visibly happier now, smiling widely at Beca. “That way, everyone wins.”

 

Beca smiles patiently. “Sure.”

 

Chloe leans in and presses a kiss to Beca’s cheek. “You’re the best, you know that?”

 

Beca can’t explain the way her chest is suddenly warm with embarrassment. “It’s common sense,” she tries to reason.

 

Chloe shakes her head. “No. Well, yeah, it is. But I don’t really know anyone who would try and make me see it. Don’t get me wrong,” she says quickly. “Aubrey told me to do the surgery, but I could hear her plea not to when she was talking to me. And Tom just kind of said to do whatever I wanted.”

 

“Oh,” Beca says, confused as to why it bothers her that Chloe asked Tom before her.

 

Chloe catches on, though. She slides her hand from the back of Beca’s chair to the back of Beca’s neck. “That doesn’t mean that your opinion isn’t important.”

 

Beca shakes her off. “No, I know. It’s whatever. Dude,” she adds, trying to put some distance between Chloe and this feeling of disappointment.

 

Chloe smiles softly. “Can we try a do-over? Of our date,” she clarifies. “Mostly so that you know it’s a real date? And so that I can actually spend time with you?”

 

Beca should say no. She tells her self that if she had known that Chloe was asking her to be her date the first time, she would have said no. She’s not here to make friends. She’s here to get through her first year and get out. Barden is a pit stop on the route to LA. Chloe is nothing more than a speed bump, really. And Beca can go around her and forget her and move on from this moment.

 

Instead, she nods and says ‘sure’ like her throat isn’t swelling rapidly in embarrassment. Chloe grins widely and kisses her on the cheek again before she grabs her Tolstoy book and heads to Bella practice.

 

Beca watches her go and shakes her head before she puts her headphones back on. The Cary Brothers’ ‘Blue Eyes’ and Taylor Swift’s ‘Crazier’ isn’t going to mix on their own.

 

\---

 

In another world, Chloe says ‘nodes’ and Beca’s head spins. She goes back to her dorm right after their humiliating performance and types ‘nodes’ into her search bar. She reads over 4 different sites and collects as much information as she can.

 

Every time she tries to talk to Chloe, though, Aubrey cuts her off. She can’t get Chloe alone, not even for a moment. When Chloe makes an announcement that she’s going to put surgery off until after they win Nationals, Beca gives up.

 

She tells herself it’s what she gets for trying.

 

\---

 

Chloe’s idea of a date is a karaoke joint. Beca almost fakes sick to get out of it. The place is large and loud and when they walk in, there is a visibly drunk man at the microphone singing “What’s Love Got To Do With It” off-key.

 

Chloe laughs wickedly when Beca leans in and mentions that her idea of a ‘date’ is dinner or coffee or even a movie. Chloe hooks an arm low around her waist and pulls her in close to talk in her ear.

 

“This place is great, don’t worry.”

 

But Beca is worried, because she knows that Chloe is going to want her to get up there and sing – or worse, she’s going to want to do a duet again.

 

Chloe grabs them each a soda and a table in the corner by the sign-up table. They talk for a while, Beca moving her seat closer if only to actually hear what Chloe is saying. They talk about Russian Lit and Western Civ and Chloe tells Beca how to get a good grade without really trying.

 

Beca trusts her advice because she’s somehow ended up holding hands with Chloe, who didn’t look like she was really trying to do that all. Beca doesn’t want to draw attention to it so she looks at everything but their hands linked on top of the table. After a half hour of how great acapella is and how Aubrey isn’t that scary once you get to know her, Chloe slides out of her seat and over to the sign-up table. She laughs at something the guy manning the table says and looks back at Beca. She winks. It makes Beca nervous. It makes Beca wish she was sipping something other than cola. That wink can only mean that Beca is going to end up in a situation where she’s the center of attention and she’s probably going to make a fool of herself.

 

That’s exactly what happens. The host calls ‘Becs and Chlo’ to the stage and as Beca steps over the wires, careful not to trip, she hears the song cue up.

 

“No.” She turns to face Chloe, intent on going back to her seat. “Absolutely not.”

 

Chloe blocks her, long fingers curling around Beca’s elbows. “Oh, yes you are.” She spins Beca around and nudges her towards the microphone. “It’ll be fun!”

 

“There’s nothing _fun_ about Pat Benatar,” Beca argues.

 

She’s too late, though. Chloe shoves a microphone into hand and starts crooning at her. “ _Oh you’re a real tough cookie with a long history, of breaking little hearts like the one in me. That’s okay, let’s see how you do it. Put up your dukes, let’s get down to it!”_

Chloe crooks a finger at her. Beca scans the crowd and takes a deep breath. “ _Hit me with your best shot!”_

_“Come on!”_

_“Hit me with your best shot.”_

Chloe leans into her, playing air guitar. “ _Hit me with your best shot_.”

 

“ _Fire awayyyyyy,”_ they sing together.

 

It’s a long three minutes. Chloe drapes herself all over Beca, winding her up in the cord of the microphone, whooping when Beca adds a mezzo note to the chorus. When it ends, _finally_ , the bar erupts into cheers so loud that Beca’s eardrums rattle inside her head. Chloe smiles widely against her cheek as they come off the stage. She pushes them towards the bar and orders water.

 

“We make really good music together!”

 

Beca hums her agreement and drinks half her glass of water in one swallow. She finishes the rest in another swallow and slams it down on the bar. She feels like there’s magic in her fingers, like she does when she puts a good mix together. It’s electrifying.

 

It terrifies her.

 

“You should sing for me,” she shouts over the dull roar of someone singing ‘Eye of the Tiger’ at the top of their lungs.

 

Chloe leans in closer. “What?”

 

Beca takes Chloe’s glass out of her hand and finishes the rest of her water. “I said, you should sing for me.”

 

Chloe smirks. “Like, privately?” she asks, lacing a finger through the belt loop of Beca’s pants.

 

Beca flushes and ducks her head. “No, like… It’s easier to show you.”

 

So they go back to campus and Beca sneaks Chloe past Sarah, the evil RA with one eye always open, and into her room.

 

“No roommate?”

 

Beca looks over at her roommate’s side of the space. “She hates me. Plots my death regularly. Never sleeps here.” She cues up her computer and unplugs her headphones, turning the volume up. She just finished her Cary Brothers/Taylor Swift mashup and had to do the singing herself. It doesn’t sound right; it doesn’t sound finished. She presses ‘play’ anyway and sits back in her chair, looking at Chloe’s face, trying to gauge her reaction.

 

When the song ends, Chloe tilts her head to one side, peering at Beca. “You did that?”

 

“Uh, yeah. It’s, uh, one of my- it’s different than my other stuff.” Beca shrugs. “I usually do, you know, like, stuff with more bass. But these songs, you know. They fit,” she finishes lamely. She doesn’t add that both songs remind her of Chloe, in a way.

 

Chloe’s smile spreads slowly, like the relief spreads through Beca’s chest. “That is so cool!” She slides across Beca’s daybed until she’s hanging over the side, grinning up at Beca. “What else do you have?”

 

\---

 

In a life Beca isn’t living, Chloe asks the same question, but only after every other Bella has filed out of Beca’s room and back to their own beds. Beca smells like old cheeseburgers and wet mops. Chloe slips on her headphones while Beca slips out of her clothes, trading them in for a sweatshirt and shorts. She changes with her back to Chloe but when she turns around, Chloe is sitting at her desk, eyes closed, humming along to whatever mix she’s picked.

 

Beca stops, just for a moment, to take it in.

 

\---

 

She gets a call a few weeks into classes from a guy down at the campus radio station. A spot opened up for an internship; she has to share it with another kid, but there’s enough hours to go around, he promises.

 

Beca starts splitting her time between the station, the library, and Chloe. Sometimes she mashes the station and Chloe together. Chloe will come sit on the desk in the corner and read while Beca stacks CDs in alphabetic order. She’ll take them down again and stack them by color or genre or by preference. It’s a boring, boring job. But Luke took a demo tape she made and promised to listen to it so it keeps her going.

 

She doesn’t know what this thing is that she’s doing with Chloe. It consumes her mixes. She matches Tegan and Sara to Eve 6; Yellowcard and the one Simple Plan song she can stand; Dear in the Headlights and the Ataris. They’re all songs about Chloe. Beca will _never_ say that out loud. They spend nights singing different arrangements, fine-tuning each key until it suits them perfectly.

 

They spend nearly half that time making out, pressed into the corner of Beca’s daybed. Chloe must be on a mission to slowly kill Beca. She kisses slow and long and her hands burn into Beca’s side. Beca wants more – more kisses, more quickly. The slow kisses are maddening; made worse by the fact that Chloe _knows_ it drives Beca crazy.

 

“I wish we could do something like this with the Bellas,” Chloe sighs one day, tucked into the desk at the station, thumbing the edge of Chekhov.

 

Beca puts all the George Michael CDs in a bucket on the shelf for the other kid to stack. “Why can’t you?”

 

Chloe sighs. “Aubrey has her heart set on our old set list.”

 

Beca winces. Chloe has run through the whole thing multiple times for her. She likes Chloe’s voice but it’s wasted on a collection of the most ear-splitting songs ever. “You can play one of my mixes for her,” she offers. “Maybe the Bruno Mars, Nelly one?”

 

Chloe loves that one. She hums it all the time. In the library, at the station, walking Beca to class, walking to lunch. It’s her new favorite, she tells Beca. Every time she starts to sing it, she makes Beca join her impromptu concert. She can’t do all the lyrics, she tells Beca. That’s why it’s a duet, a mashup.

 

“I’d love that,” Chloe admits. “It’s my-“

 

“Favorite,” Beca finishes. “I know. So, here.” Beca fishes a thumb drive out of her pocket. She was going to give it to Luke later on. There’s good reason that it’s Chloe’s favorite. It’s such a good arrangement, good harmony. She hands it to Chloe. “Give this to her. Listen to it with her later. She’ll have to see how good this is. How good you are.”

 

“You’re sure?”

 

Beca nods. “Of course I am. Take it.” She presses it into Chloe’s outstretched hand.

 

Chloe takes the drive and wraps her fingers around Beca’s hand, holding it tight. “You know my favorite mashup?” Her voice is small and her eyes are bright.

 

Beca frantically searches for something to say, other than the truth. The truth is that she hangs on every one of Chloe’s words. She catalogues them. If Chloe mentions a song she likes, Beca works it into her next project. If Chloe likes the mashup, Beca puts it in a folder on her desktop titled ‘Blah’. (She calls it that so no one will think to look in it.)

 

“It’s not a big deal,” is what she musters up.

 

Chloe looks at her like she’s wrong, like it _is_ a big deal, but Beca look away and focuses on the stack of CDs in her hand. They’re not going to put themselves away.

 

Chloe squeals when she checks the time and realizes she’s late for practice. She’s moving so quickly she bumps Beca into the stacks and presses her there while she presses a kiss to her mouth. “Bye, Becs,” she throws over her shoulder. The door slams shut behind her.

 

“You guys are cute together.”

 

Beca jumps at the voice behind her. A handful of CDs fall to the ground, clatteringly loudly in the quiet room. “What?”

 

The other kid, Jesse, picks up the CDs. “You and your girlfriend. You’re cute together. You remind me of ‘The Breakfast Club’, you know? You’re Judd Nelson: an obvious badass with a less obvious set of human emotions. She’s definitely Molly Ringwold, though. Everything seems kosher, bubbly and popular, but there’s some type of longing, burning under the surface.” The kid grins toothily at her. “Am I right?”

 

Beca opens her mouth and snaps it closed again, still trying to wrap her head around his words.

 

Jesse smiles wider. “Oh, and I stacked George the last time. You’re up.”

 

\---

 

They’re dating.

 

Beca figures it out while Chloe is having surgery. She’s standing in the hall at the hospital, pacing back and forth between plastic chairs while the clock ticks loudly in the corner. It’s not a revelation. She’s not that obtuse. She knew they were seeing each other. But she didn’t know they were _seeing_ each other. Exclusively. To the point where Beca has met Chloe’s parents. Twice. Before the surgery.

 

It’s a family-only floor, but Chloe’s mom – small and smiling and so very much like Chloe – had wrapped an arm around Beca’s shoulders and smiled graciously at the doctor who offered to show them where the coffee cart was. Beca ducked her head as they walked through the double-doors, leaving Aubrey and some other Bellas behind.

 

Aubrey was oddly supportive the whole car ride from Barden to Emory University Hospital. She let Beca ride next to Chloe and didn’t make any snappy comments about the way Chloe’s hands were wound tightly in Beca’s. She even let Chloe put on a CD of Beca’s mixes.

 

Everything about it made Beca want to crawl out of her skin.

 

She was used to Chloe and the touches and the kisses against her cheek and her forehead and the closeness. But that was when they were alone or tucked into the corner of the radio station. That was not in front of people; definitely not in front of _Aubrey_.

 

Chloe’s grip tightened with each mile they crept closer to Emory. By the time they met Chloe’s parents in the parking lot, Beca’s hand was knotted and bruised. Pacing the hallway, she flexes her hand with each step. Chloe’s dad smiles at her reassuringly.

 

“Coffee, Beca?”

 

She thanks him but declines. He leaves in search of some anyway and takes Chloe’s little brother Alex with him.

 

“He’s a mover,” Chloe’s mom explains. “Like you, I’ve noticed.”

 

Beca stops, mid-step. She tugs her sweatshirt over her hands sheepishly. “I don’t like being still. I don’t know how you’re so… relaxed.”

 

“The doctor knows what he’s doing.” Chloe’s mom tilts her head to the side. “I’m glad you’re here. She told me. That she wouldn’t have done this if it wasn’t for you.”

 

Beca tries to shrink into her sweatshirt. “I didn’t do anything.”

 

“You did enough,” Chloe’s mom assures her. “Thank you.”

 

The doctor comes out, taking a scrub cap off his head, and tells them that Chloe did great and they’re moving her to recovery now. He says family-only again, looking pointedly at Beca, who is the only person in the hallway without red hair. Chloe’s mother’s arm is there again, quickly. “She’s my daughter’s girlfriend. That’s family enough for me.”

 

They’re dating.

 

Chloe holds her hand when they finally get to her recovery room, not saying a word. She’s been told not to talk, at least for a few days. Beca fishes an MP3 player out of her pocket and a jack splitter, putting two sets of earphones on and handing Chloe one. They both put one ear in and half-listen while Chloe’s mom fluffs pillows behind Chloe’s head and Chloe’s little brother teachers her dad how to turn on the TV and change the channels. Their hands stay laced the entire time. Bellas file through the room once they get permission and Chloe’s hand never strays. Aubrey kisses Chloe on the forehead softly and squeezes Beca’s shoulder.

 

Chloe grins up at her as Aubrey leaves the room. _She likes you_ , Chloe scribbles on the small pad of paper in her lap. Beca rolls her eyes and sticks the other earbud in Chloe’s ear, skipping to the next track.

 

Chloe falls asleep to herself singing ‘All of Me’ on top of Katy Perry’s ‘Unconditionally’.

 

\---

 

Chloe’s medically-ordered silence pushes all of her limits. Beca can see the frustration in her eyes, especially when she comes back from another practice where she can’t sing. On those nights, Beca kisses her to calm her down and subjects herself to at least three hours of America’s Next Top Model.

 

That’s what dating is, Jesse tells her. He explains everything one day when Chloe is in class.

 

_“Dating,”_ he said, “ _is putting someone else’s needs before your own. Like, she likes romcoms and you hate romcoms but you watch them anyway because her nose scrunches up at all the cheesy parts and you love that about her_.”

 

Beca had thrown a scratched Kenny G album at him. That had launched him into a terrible Kenny G impression Beca could never unsee.

 

But she thought about it later that night; sacrifices for affection and all that stuff. Laying in her bed, Chloe propped up in front of her. Beca thinks of the sacrifices she’s made so far. There haven’t been many, really. She ditched on a ‘Dad and Beca’ weekend to go to the hospital with Chloe. She gave up a few shifts at the station to go to some other performances the Bellas put on around Atlanta. She goes with Chloe to some poetry thing and misses a chance to host a show when Luke can’t make it to work. She hadn’t been as disappointed as she thought she was going to be. Especially after Chloe pressed her against the side of the coffee house building and kissed her until her head spun.

 

After two weeks, Chloe comes back from practice grinning ear to ear. She tackles Beca, laughing as they hit the side of the bed before they crash to the floor. Beca’s roommate rolls her eyes and leaves, uttering a string of words that aren’t in English and can’t be nice.

 

“I can sing,” Chloe shouts into Beca’s ear.

 

“You can,” Beca agrees.

 

“No!” Chloe rolls onto her back, panting. “I can sing again. I sound like an angel.”

 

Beca props herself up on her elbow and grins at Chloe. “Someone is full of themselves.”

 

Chloe sits up, pushing her hair out of her face. “I have to call my mom. I have to Skype Alex. I need to send myself a signing telegram.”

 

“You need to make out with your girlfriend.” Beca tries not to be too surprised that the g-word came out of her mouth.

 

Chloe can’t hide it as well, though. Her smile stretches impossibly wider. “Girlfriend, huh? Why Ms. Mitchell, I do declare.”

 

Beca groans, falling back against the carpet. She throws an arm across her eyes. “I hate that movie.”

 

“But you _like_ me,” Chloe sings. “And I’m your girlfriend.”

 

Beca drops her arm and squints up at Chloe. “Well, yeah?”

 

Chloe is already nodding, leaning down to kiss her. “Yeah.”

 

\---

 

In both of her timelines, Beca goes to the Semifinals. In both, she watches as the Bellas crash.

 

In one world, she tries, she fails, she turns, and she runs.

 

In another, Chloe runs to her.

 

In both worlds, Beca has no idea what to do next.

 

\---

 

Chloe spends a week in Beca’s bed, alternating between sleeping and crying. Her voice goes from crystal clear to scratchy after two days. She drinks tea constantly. Beca goes through three bottles of honey in as many days. After a week, though, she’s decided that enough is enough. Chloe is missing classes, she’s missing Aubrey’s calls, and she’s missing time with her girlfriend.

 

“Come on. Let’s go.” Beca pulls at Chloe until her feet hit the ground and she’s sitting up. Her hair is sticking out in strange angles. Beca finds her strangely endearing. “We’re going out.”

 

Chloe shakes her head. “No,” she croaks. “I’m not. I can’t.”

 

“You can. You will. We _are_ ,” Beca stresses, pointing between herself and Chloe. “You’re starting to smell. Which means that I’m starting to smell by extension.” She softens a little. “Aubrey said everyone misses you.”

 

Chloe sniffs. “I can’t go out like this.”

 

“Thank goodness someone discovered the shower, then. Hey,” Beca grins. “You know all about showers, don’t you, crasher?”

 

It gets her the barest hint of a smile, but Beca takes it as a sign of victory. “Perfect.” She claps her hands together. “Come on, Beale. Your public awaits.”

 

She takes Chloe to the karaoke bar where they had their first date. They sit at the same table, squashed in behind Aubrey and another Bella named Stacie. Chloe brightens as the night goes on, sharing the stage with Aubrey and then two other girls who might be Jessica or Ashley but Beca can’t remember. Beca balks when Chloe tries to drag her up on stage, though, conscious of Aubrey’s eyes on her the whole time. Chloe groans and calls her a dork, but heads up to the stage with Stacie to sing.

 

“You sing.”

 

Beca looks at Aubrey expectantly, waiting for an insult to follow. When one doesn’t, she tilts her head to the side and asks, “Yeah, and?”

 

Aubrey shrugs. “I listened to one of your mashups. The Nelly and Bruno Mars one.”

 

“That’s Chloe’s favorite.”

 

“I know.” Aubrey leans back in her seat. “You sang on the track. Chloe played it for me a hundred times.”

 

Beca shrugs and scans the crowd looking for Chloe. “Sorry?”

 

“Listen, I got a call this morning. The team that beat us, they cheated. So, by default, we’re going to Nationals.”

 

Beca swivels in her seat. She ends up with her hair in her mouth. “What? Does Chloe know?”

 

Aubrey shakes her head. “No. And I’m not going to tell her.”

 

“ _Dude_ ,” Beca hisses. “Are you insane? She’s devastated over the loss. She’s going to flip when you tell her that you’re back in the competition.” Beca lifts up in her seat a little, trying to get Chloe’s attention.

 

Aubrey tugs her back down into her seat. “Stop it. Listen to me.” She waits until Beca gestures at her to keep going. “We won’t win unless we do something else.”

 

Beca snorts. “I’ve been saying that this whole time.” She catches sight of Aubrey’s frown and has the decency to look ashamed. “Sorry.”

 

Aubrey rolls her eyes. “We need a new voice and a new sound. We…” She sighs and wrings her hands. “We need you.”

 

“What?”

 

“We need you,” Aubrey repeats, her teeth audibly grinding against each other. “Chloe has a bad habit of playing your music constantly and there’s a few mixes you’ve done that won’t be too hard to learn.”

 

Beca leans back in her seat. “So you want me to make you a mix?”

 

“I want you to join the Bellas.”

 

Beca pitches forward again. “ _What?_ ”

 

“One of our members had to leave us unexpectedly and we have a roster opening. According to the bylaws, I am allowed to fill that slot with someone I see fit.” Aubrey pointedly looks away. “You are marginally talented. We need another member. Chloe likes you. You have – Just say yes, Beca. This is tiring.”

 

Beca looks up over Aubrey’s shoulder at Chloe. She’s stopped halfway back to the table and she’s spinning around a group of Bellas, laughing. She looks up and catches Beca’s eye, winking at her. Her smile is wide, stretching from ear to ear. Beca’s heart feels like it skips a beat.

 

“Fine,” she hears herself say. She looks at Aubrey and wonders if her own eyes are as wide, as filled with surprise. “I’m in.”

 

So Beca joins the Bellas in the middle of a karaoke bar.

 

\---

 

The first few rehearsals are ridiculous. Aubrey is a taskmaster. The first time she tells Beca to get started on a cardio workout, Beca thinks she’s kidding. But the way that Stacie and Chloe snap to attention and take off towards the stairs indicates that no, Aubrey is not kidding. In fact, she really expects ten sets of stairs and fifty pushups in ten minutes.

 

“No way,” she argues. “I didn’t join the track team. I’m here to sing.”

 

Aubrey looks down at her. “Acapella is more than just singing, Beca. It requires a lot.”

 

“No. Way.” Beca insists.

 

Five minutes and one silent argument with Chloe, Beca coasts the last stair on her first set. She jogs by Aubrey and glares at her. Chloe winks suggestively at her and taps her behind at the bottom of the stairs.

 

Every step she jogs, she chants to herself: _For Chloe, for Chloe, for Chloe._

\---

 

In a second reality, Beca comes back to the Bellas after Fat Amy tells her that Chloe misses her. She shelves her pride and loads her pocket with different mixes and marches to the rehearsal space only to find Chloe on the ground, wrestling with Aubrey.

 

They have their moment of confession. Amy’s name isn’t Amy, Cynthia Rosa has a gambling problem, Aubrey can’t handle the stress her dad puts on her. Beca waits until everyone has nearly left, until Chloe is the only lingering at the piano, before she approaches. She presses a flashdrive into Chloe’s palm and closes her fingers around it. The flashdrive is labeled ‘ _For Chloe_ ’ in wide, permanent letters.

 

“I came back because of you,” she admits.

 

\---

 

It turns out that competing is a rush. But competing with Chloe is a high. Their choreography isn’t as tight as it could be, but Chloe brushes by her constantly, letting a hand linger as they move around the stage. This is her first time on a stage but it feels familiar, like this is somewhere she was supposed to always be.

 

They hit their final note and the lights go down around them. Chloe’s hand finds hers in the dark and squeezes tightly. Beca feels around until she’s wound herself around Chloe, breathing heavily into her neck. She can feel Chloe’s chest rising and falling against her.

 

“We did it,” Chloe pants. “We did it.”

 

“ _You_ did it,” Beca amends.

 

Chloe’s hands tug at her chin until their mouth brush against each other. “ _We_ did it,” she stresses.

 

It’s what the Bellas chant the whole way home, trophy strapped safely into the front seat of the bus.

 

\---

 

Beca pushes past a family crowding the doorway, glaring at them over her shoulder when she finally gets past them. She takes in the gymnasium, decked out in green streamers and green banenrs.

 

Amy barrels into her from behind. “Looks like the Giant Green Bean man threw up in here.”

 

Beca frowns at her. Amy shrugs. “It’s true.”

 

“I think Stacie saved us a seat near the front.” Beca points towards the chairs near the roped-off section.

 

The graduation ceremony is boring. Someone Beca doesn’t know but vaguely recognizes from the Sigma party gives a speech about how their all friends and they’ll never forget each other. She wants to challenge him to name at least three people who aren’t from a sorority or fraternity. She’s not sure he’d pass that test.

 

Aubrey crosses the stage regally. Her shoulder are straight and pushed back and she walks like she’s thinking ‘ _Murder them all_.’ Stacie whoops embarrassingly loud in her ear and even Beca can’t help but smile.

 

She doesn’t break out the finger-whistle until the speaker announces ‘Chloe Beale’ into the microphone. Chloe bounds across the stage, eagerly taking the diploma holder out of the Dean’s hands. She holds it close to her chest and squeals – Beca can hear it even over the applause that started twenty minutes ago and hasn’t stopped yet. She looks down into the crowd, scanning for Beca. Beca waves sheepishly and it catches the corner of Chloe’s eye. She turns and grins down at Beca widely, waving back at her. Beca pushes her fingers into her mouth and blow, letting loose a high-pitched whistle.

 

Chloe nearly skips off the stage and bounces in her seat the entire time she needs to stay there. Beca keep twisting in her seat, trying to get a glimpse of her. Lilly is sitting behind her and after the fifth time that Beca turns, Lilly elbows her. She spends the rest of graduation texting Chloe. The ceremony ends and the Bellas wait for their captains under a big tree on the quad.

 

“Hey,” Chloe whispers in her ear. Her arms wind around Beca’s waist. Beca turns to face her, grinning up at her. “I graduated.”

 

“You graduated,” Beca agrees. She leans forward and up, pressing a chaste kiss to Chloe’s mouth.

 

Chloe pulls back and laces her arms behind Beca’s neck. “You know, I was doing some reading once.”

 

“Just once?” Beca teases.

 

Chloe rolls her eyes. “It was about the theory of split universes and how there are moments where you life changes forever.” She soothes away Beca’s frown. “No, listen. There are these moments where you make a decision, like a small one or a big one, and then everything splits. Like, you’re living in this world where one thing is happening, but there’s a parallel world where the opposite is happening.”

 

Beca nods, playing along. “Okay, smarty pants.”

 

Chloe swats at Beca’s shoulder. “I’m serious.”

 

“Okay,” Beca concedes. “What is your moment, then?”

 

“Well,” Chloe hums. “I think mine might have been that day in the library, the first time, when I came up to you. I think that maybe in another world, I didn’t. And I went on with whatever I was doing. And I never got to listen to your music or kiss you or anything.” Chloe smiles softly. “I think that was my moment.”

 

Beca wants to say something sarcastic but the pollen must be really bad today because her eyes water and she can’t think of anything. She kisses Chloe soundly, nipping at her bottom lip. She pulls back but stays close “What do you think my moment was?”

 

Chloe shrugs. “It’s your moment, not mine. You think about it.”

 

Beca figures she’ll kiss Chle now and think about moments later. 


End file.
